When did you stop contact napping?

Sleep
1

…and more importantly, how?

Our little one is 15 weeks now and has been exclusively contact napping since Day 1. I need to make some progress towards independent napping as I return to work soon.

What’s the best way to go about this? Every time I try to lay her down for a nap, she’s up almost immediately (4 - 6 minutes or so) despite being fully asleep when placed down and will not be settled unless we pick her up, rock her and replace her pacifier. Is my only hope sleep training? We haven’t explored sleep training at all yet, even for nights, so not sure what the best approach is.

At night she is rocked to sleep and then placed in the Snoo, where she is able to sleep the most of the night with usually 1-2 wake ups.

2

I’ve been contact napping since birth and my LO is also 15 weeks… I have recently been trying to get my LO to nap in her crib. Yesterday we had 3 successful crib naps! They only lasted about 30 mins tho.

What I’ve been doing is when she is tired, I lay her down in the crib, turn on white noise and shush her to sleep. She likes when I rub her forehead to sleep, I start at her forehead and rub down to her nose or go across her forehead and it helps her fall asleep lol. Other babies may like your hand on their chest or being rubbed/patted on the chest instead, you need to find what works for your baby. Once she is asleep I walk out of the room! The first time I did it she had a 1.5 hr nap. Recently they have only been 30 mins but I’m happy to be making the transition to crib naps. I was getting over-stimulated with the 24/7 contact with baby.

Babies this age are more aware so if they fall asleep somewhere and wake up another place they are like WTF HOW DID I GET HERE!? So it’s much easier to put them down awake and help them fall asleep IN the crib rather than rock to sleep in arms and place down.

3

Our son needed contact for all sleep for the first 5 months. When we switched from a bassinet to a crib, he started with overnight sleep and then started taking naps in the crib after a week or so. I don’t know if it was just a coincidence, but he also seemed to really hate the bassinet.

4

I’ve come across a lot of children who exclusively contact nap would not settle at all if they had no contact at all. In a daycare setting, it’s kind of unrealistic to provide a contact nap to 8 babies at the same time when you’re just one person, so I would have to train them to be more independent sleepers. I’ve helped babies stop contact napping at 5 months but also at 1 year old as well.

It can take a bit of time, so you just need some patience. Putting her in the cot while she is awake and trying to soothe her in it is probably the best approach. You can talk to her and tell her that it’s time to sleep. You can still offer her contact by putting your hand on her chest so she can still feel your warmth.

I found a variety of ways to put them to sleep in the cot. For my 1 year old, he was rocked in his parents’ arms, so for him I placed my hand on his chest and rocked him gently side to side as he was in the cot. My 5 month old was definitely a little more restless, but she enjoyed gentle pats on her chest, and I would hold her hand to offer a little more contact that she needed. My 15 month old was very agitated and would scream if we put her in the cot. But I would gently reposition her to lie down even when she was constantly getting up and trying to climb out of the cot. For her it took a very long time, but I kept reassuring her that even if she was in the cot, I was still there with her and that she could feel my hand on her chest.

As the babies started to settle, I’d slowly stop rocking or patting and leave my hand on their chest until they hit that deeper sleep (REM Sleep, snoring, etc.). Only then would I gently remove my hand from their chest. This usually works for most of my children, BUT on the odd occasion, I’d have a baby who would ALWAYS wake after I removed my hand. For them, I made a sand hand! I filled a plastic glove with sand and would place it on their chest to offer them a false sense of contact. Worked like a charm! Haha!

In a week or two when they were more comfortable being in the cot, I would just put my hand on their chest and tell them it’s rest time without any contact and for most, they’d be able to settle on their own with no help at all!

Keep in mind, that the examples I gave were with children who wouldn’t settle at all unless there was some form of contact. No amount of dim lights and music helped, so I had to problem-solve in the ways I did.

Every child is different, so just experiment to see what works with your little one. All babies transition at their own pace, so just keep trying and remember that storms eventually pass. I hope these tips were helpful to you! :smiling_face::sparkles:

5

We contact napped for almost every nap between six weeks and four months. At four months, I started transitioning her to the crib which she took to no problem. My daughter is six months old now and still doing three naps. I still do a handful of contact a week if she’s having a hard day or just because I want to.

6

Never lol. Mine turns a year next week. I love it, his cuddles are so sweet and I’m trying to soak it up while he still wants to contact nap.

Edit: plus it forces me to take a break. It’s the only part of the day that I’m just chilling, listening to a podcast, texting, etc.

7

@LiamJames
Exact same feelings about my 13 month old’s contact napping. We want more kids and know it won’t be sustainable then so enjoying it now.

8

I started putting him down in his own room, in his crib. I dimmed the lights, turned on some baby lullabies, put him down awake and shushed and stroked his belly/forehead towards his eyebrows (to close his eyes). Sometimes it works, sometimes he’ll stay wide awake at which point I leave and see if he’ll go to sleep on his own (with his paci). He will sometimes cry for like 10 sec so I don’t immediately go back in but wait 2-3 min before I do. If I do, I don’t pick him up but shush and stroke his forehead from beside the crib. Sometimes I would go in another 4 times (you can also take turns with a partner). I found that I did too much rocking, singing, background noise, etc. and it actually kept my baby from sleeping. Any new “routine” I would try for a couple of days before I abandon it to try and establish a sleep association (putting him down in the same room, always dimming the lights, etc.). It has really helped with our LO. Maybe start with one nap per day in his own crib? Even if he manages to sleep only 10 min by himself. I do have to add that my baby never liked being carried and was never a big fan of contact napping because he would get distracted by my boobs :smiley: we do co-sleep half of the night so maybe that’s why he doesn’t want to contact nap during the day? Good luck! And just keep at whatever you want to try and reinforce in the long run and don’t give up. :heart:

9

@Amby
This has been our method too! It was definitely tedious at first but I think it’s helped her sleep much better!

10

How long have you been attempting the independent naps? I also contact napped my now 12-week-old almost exclusively, but she will be going to daycare when I return to work in 2 weeks so we’ve been working on independent naps. For context, we just recently (the past 3-ish weeks) started making strides with independent night sleep because she suffered from really horrible gas, which finally began improving around 9 weeks.

For naps, we started with 1 nap a day in the crib when she was 9 weeks old. Usually the first nap of the day if we could swing it. It was bad at first, just a few minutes at a time like you describe. But she started doing 40-45 min naps after about a week. We also rock her to sleep before laying her down. Once she wakes up and can’t be helped back to sleep in the crib (using Taking Cara Babies calming tactics), I usually hold her to extend that nap so she gets a good first one in.

At 10-11 weeks we started doing two crib naps a day - the first & third naps (she takes 4 a day, so we alternate). Her last nap before bedtime is always contact. I found that alternating helps her reset.

11

Do you do her nap (attempts) in the Snoo? I find even if my baby (11 weeks old) wakes up there’s a chance she could be rocked back to sleep. Swaddling helps her as well - and I’ve heard some people have success with double swaddling!
But we also do our fair share of contact naps.

12

@Marley
Mine is 14 wk and for the past couple of weeks we’ve been working on daytime naps. Prior to that we only did contact napping. She will take the first 2 to 3 naps in her snoo. Naps only last 30 to 45 minutes, but apparently that’s a developmental thing and normal for this age. Something I read earlier said don’t expect longer naps until 5 months of age.

13

We contact nap when she’s teething really bad or sick. But other than that, we transfer to crib. Been doing it this way since 3 months. Sometimes family will do contact naps if they are watching her.

14

Around 7 months. We would rest our arm on a pillow and slowly each day move her more towards the pillow then when she was fine with just us being close and being on the pillow we removed the pillow. At around 8-9 months she started totally refusing contact naps.

15

Ours is hit or miss but it helps to keep her crib bed a little warm. I tend to cover it with a swaddle she might be playing on outside the crib, some suggest placing a warming blanket or something for a few minutes. I keep her close until she hits the bed (awkwardly bending over the crib by a lot) and hold her arms and legs a bit tightly which she tends to like. Otherwise, she tends to move a bit and land a limb on a cold part and then startle herself awake :confused:

16

I am not sure if my daughter needed the contact nap or if I was just too anxious to give her a solid chance to sleep on her own. I didn’t know that newborns moved a lot and made weird noises so I just assumed she wasn’t happy.

I went the extra mile and did all sleep with her in my arms. By month 3 I was getting fed up and I missed sleeping in a bed. I tried for a week different techniques to put her down but she would thrash in her crib and it freaked me out! She seemed “down” but not so I didn’t know what to do. My sister told me to just leave the room and that she would settle.

And what do you know, she did! Mind you I didn’t sleep that first night away from her because I was checking constantly on the monitor :joy:

She started going 10-12 hrs at night from 4 months on.

17

Our son is 2 months and we’ve been doing a mix. We got the magic Merlin (he’s over the 12 lb weight requirement) for crib naps and I think he likes it a lot because he feels like he’s being hugged. He’ll nap anywhere from 30 min - 1.5 hr in his crib. Sometimes he fusses for a bit but does end up falling asleep. We give him 10-15 mins before we decide it’s not working. He is a pretty good sleeper for his age, still in snoo bassinet overnight (sleeps a 6-7 hour stretch, wakes up for feed, and then sleeps again til about 6 am). I usually do one contact nap after I feed him at 6 because he’s groggy but doesn’t want to go back in his bassinet or crib.

I’m a FTM but I’ve found that doing some crib naps during the day has helped him adjust, but not ready for him to be in there overnight yet. It’s great when they start crib napping because you can have a bit of freedom to get some chores done or relax without a human blanket.

I think it’s important to note there are days he’s a good napper and days he’s not so I’m just trying to listen to cues and go with the flow. Not sure when I’ll stop contact napping but trying to get him more used to his crib when I can!

18

@Jordan
One thing I forgot to mention, when I try to have him nap in the snoo I’ve had a bit of trouble, even though he sleeps large chunks in it at night. Not sure what’s up with that but maybe try the crib during the day!

19

I think a lot depends on the baby. Our baby hates the crib for naps. She sleeps in the crib just fine at night but naps are tough. At 7 months 90% of naps are contact.

20

Ever since the beginning I’ve made sure that I have my baby sleep in different places that aren’t my arms so they don’t only sleep while on me.